Times A Little Behind
Eric Richardson
[Flickr]
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — The Times runs a pretty standard piece today on the dangers of public wifi. Inside the article, though, they include this head-scratcher:
T-Mobile, which charges about $10 a day for HotSpot use, is working to get more people to use them. Last month, the company finished installing a system at Los Angeles International Airport that covers 3.8 million square feet of space, making it one of the largest Wi-Fi deployments in the world.
Also, free Wi-Fi hot spots are being added to more outdoor areas by cities. Fullerton and Long Beach already have them, and there are plans to install a system at Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles.
I understand that the average person might think the Pershing Square wifi isn't there, given how light of use I'd suspect it gets, but a staff writer for the Times? I thought they did research into articles like this. The Pershing Square WIFI has been live for nearly two years now.
Photo from the April 28, 2005, opening taken by Curt Gibbs of Experience LA.
Whitman Lam on April 22, 2007, at 08:29PM – #1
Little Tokyo has wi-fi too. If you want to blog while dining on sushi. I figure South Park should have a system up soon, just a suggestion with so many conventions and with LA Live coming....
Could come in handy at the next E3.
Benjamin Pezzillo on April 22, 2007, at 08:40PM – #2
It's interesting to me this article doesn't mention Villaraigosa's proposed plan, announced back in February, to bring WiFi to 498 square miles of Los Angeles by 2009.
JohnnyPemberton on April 23, 2007, at 02:44PM – #3
this is ridiculous.
Who the hell would ever bring a laptop to the latrine that is Pershing Square?! Not only is it the ugliest public park in America, it's probably the dirtiest. That place is so filthy it's a health hazard. I even avoid riding by on my bike for fear of inhaling a new anti-biotic resistant strain of pneumonia riding through the air on a bloated particle of bum piss.
I'm sure the city would love to destroy the place and build anew, but the biohazard demolition team that it would require is surely 10 times as expensive as installing free wi-fi. Hey City of LA, quit throwing bones and clean the place up! Purple is for Prince, not Pershing Square.
Kenarch on April 25, 2007, at 11:05AM – #4
Jeez... Johnny - sure, Pershing Square is an eyesore - but really - you've got to be joking. "Bum piss" causing airborne pneumonia? That's not even remotely happening. Yeah, it reeks all over downtown LA. All over LA wherever there are public places. In any big city where there are public places. Have you smelled San Francisco or New York? Until we get a handle on the real problems that foster "bum piss" we'll have to wade through it unless one wants to go live in some anesthetised suburb somewhere. Oh, and lest I checked, LA is a really colorful city. That can mean whatever you want it to mean. Look around... OK, I agree - the place is ugly. That doesn't mean wi-fi would be abad thing there. You might be surprised... there's plenty of people who are a lot hardier than they get credit for. Isee them in Pershing Square quite often. I walk through there regularly... it is a matter of time before it gets better.
JohnnyPemberton on May 02, 2007, at 11:04AM – #5
yes...definitely joking about the airborne pneumonia. Agree with you about about nature of an urban environment environment.
I just think the installation of wifi represents a classic LA problem solving technique - "painting a turd". What's the point of putting wifi in a place that is barely fit to enjoy a sandwich.
I don't expect the place to be squeaky clean just some proper triage in fixing the place. My previous comment was a lot of hot air, but damn that place is ugly. I feel like there should be a big meeting where everyone agrees the place looks like a shit, then the healing (or destruction) can start.